2013 Infiniti QX56

Some things appear much smaller in pictures than they do in person. The Eiffel Tower, Space Shuttle orbiters and the statue of Abraham Lincoln in the National Mall come immediately to mind. The 2013 Infiniti QX56, however, isn't one of those things.

The Infiniti flagship sport utility looks massive in pictures, and it grows to simply colossal when you are standing next to it.

Even at an arm's distance, the QX56 has the physical presence of a Clydesdale horse – its styling cues project power and strength, says the automaker, and the designers apparently made no attempt to downplay the full-size SUV's massive V8 engine and cavernous eight-passenger cabin. There are other passenger vehicles on the road that are physically larger, but none visually cast their mass as well as Infiniti's traditional body-on-frame QX.

We recently spent a week with the heavyweight in an effort to determine whether three tons of substance is overkill or handy to have around. In a nutshell, does bigger always equate to better?

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2014 Aston Martin Vanquish

As far as unexpected encounters with wild animals go, squirrels don't normally rate. The furry little nut-smugglers are omnipresent fixtures in my neck of the woods – literally – so normally a chance meeting doesn't warrant caution the way a bear or even an ornery raccoon might. But one's list of priorities can't help but change a bit at 175 miles per hour. That was exactly the case when I drove this Aston Martin's predecessor, the DBS, a few years ago.

I was hammering around a closed course – Ford's Romeo proving grounds – on the company's high-banked track, 25 mph shy of the double ton, when a little red dot appeared on the surface of the track, far up the straight. It was a squirrel, which, lacking the good sense not to be on the track at that particular moment, was at least smart enough to flatten itself into a pancake (perhaps it heard the Aston's mighty V12 closing in). I prayed it wouldn't dart from its adjacent lane into mine, because at my closing speed, I figured I wouldn't have time to retaliate. Naturally, the kamikaze rodent skittered on its stomach directly into my trajectory at the last minute, leaving me no choice but to issue a critical hair's breadth correction at the wheel. Roadkill manufacturing is normally a momentary wince-inducing affair – a grimace, a quick appeal for the universe's forgiveness – and then on with one's day. Yet in a car as low as an Aston Martin, at the velocity I was traveling, a bit of fur flying and battered karma would've been the least of my concerns.

2013 BMW 135is Coupe

Every once in a while, I find myself, despite my solitary leanings and inherent modesty, working out in some kind of class setting. The tone and tenor of these classes ranges wildly – from the quiet, follow-the-leader variety, to those with a kind of Cult of Personality man or woman calling the shots, usually with idiom-laden shouting and theatrical hair. Despite their personal variation and range of professional effectiveness, there's one common concept that most instructors bring up at some point: working with intention.

The idea, as it relates to physical fitness, is that focusing your brain on the movement at hand ­– the rate of your own breathing, or the muscle groups being worked for instance – helps to perform the act efficiently and correctly. Having spent a happy majority of the last decade in an exercise-free near-debauch, I was a bit surprised to find out that this kind of mental game really works pretty well.

All of this is relevant to my current task at hand, telling all of you what it's like to drive the 2013 BMW 135is Coupe, because this is very clearly a car that rewards being driven with intention. Here, of course, I don't mean simply keeping both hands on the wheels, eyes on the road, and such, but actively judging your own inputs and the car's reactions to them. Good drivers (at least) are attentive most of the time, but it's rare that we have the patience for applying such purpose to this everyday act, unless, as is the case with the 135is, the car rewards us for it so fully.

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2013 Ford C-Max Hybrid

As much as we enthusiasts like to rail on the lowly Toyota Prius as the harbinger of death for all we hold dear, there's no denying the machine's absolute and interminable grip on the hybrid market in the United States. Toyota has so thoroughly sunk its teeth into the segment that you can clearly hear the automaker's incisors clacking against one another with the conclusion of each financial quarter. And there's little wonder why. Buyers can plop down less than $25,000 and have a runabout that can return up to an estimated 51 miles per gallon in the city, leaving every other entry on the market with precious little gristle to gnaw on.

Enter the 2013 Ford C-Max Hybrid. With its claimed 47 mpg combined, the funky little hatch from Europe already falls behind the 48 mpg city offered by the Prius, but that marginal sacrifice in fuel economy could be a small price to pay for buyers who want a credible alternative to the stalwart Toyota. Unfortunately, like the Fusion Hybrid, the C-Max Hybrid had trouble even approaching its Environmental Protection Agency estimates during our time with the car.

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2013 Audi RS5

I imagine spending time with a sexy sports coupe is similar to a first date with a supermodel. Before she arrives, there's a buildup of excitement mixed with nervous anticipation. Even though the background work is done, there are many concerns and unanswered questions about how the two of you will get along. What about compatibility, engagement and dynamics?

The big day arrives, and you answer the door to find her waiting in the driveway wearing a form-fitting Misano Red Pearl dress and sleek Anthracite stilettos. As you shake your head in disbelief, you swear she just winked her... ah... xenon headlight at you.

Relax big boy, you've been fantasizing about the 2013 Audi RS5.
Like all of its German counterparts, Audi sells its A5 coupe and cabriolet in several different flavors. All share the same basic chassis, and most of the cabin appointments, but mechanically they are all a few yards apart. And each is distinguished by its individual performance envelope.

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2013 Mini John Cooper Works GP

Back in February, Mini invited me to come try out its brand-new Paceman coupe-crossover-hatchback thing in Puerto Rico, and not long after, I spit out a Quick Spin detailing my impressions of the little-big two-door. But here's what I didn't tell you: Mini also let me loose on those fine, curvaceous, tropical roads in its hottest hatch, the John Cooper Works GP. And while that behind-the-wheel gigglefest would have no doubt made for a story laden with positive notes and warm regards, the truth is, I only drove it for 15 minutes, so I couldn't in good conscience offer much of a story to you. (European Editor Matt Davis also got a short stint behind the wheelof the GP late last year.)

So for the sake of due diligence, I buckled down and spent a full eight days with the JCW GP back home in Detroit, just as springtime was starting to stick here in southeast Michigan. But after my time with the Mini, I was wishing that I could have just been left with my GP memories from Puerto Rico, where I was pushing the little hotbox hard around smooth corners and flexing every one of its muscles to eke out the full JCW GP experience in only a short timeframe.

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2013 BMW X1

Against the backdrop of fervent hand-wringing from brand purists,BMW is on the cusp of finally offering front-wheel-drive vehicles. While that's a shock to the constitution, many are pointing to the company's fine-handling Mini offerings as an article of faith that it can get this drivetrain paradigm shift right. That may be true, but there's an even more important lesson that Mini has taught the decision-makers in Munich: how to make real money on small cars.

Before Mini came along, BMW – along with seemingly every other premium European automaker – never really figured out how to coax big dollars out of American wallets without developing cars that had large footprints, at least those other than sports cars. While the automaker really got rolling in America on the strength of little bantamweights like the 2002, it veered away from small cars sometime in the '80s. BMW subsequently crashed and burned with the cut-and-shut 318ti built off its E36 3 Series and, good as it is, the 1 Series hasn't given the company meaty volume or profits, either. Among other brands, the Audi A3 has never rung up big numbers, and the less said about the painful sales figures of theVolvo C30, the better. But Mini has beat the odds, blazing a more affordable and evidently compelling trail. As of late, the company's Countryman softroader has been a massive hit worldwide. No surprise then that BMW has reconsidered bringing over its smallest softroader, the X1, to the US.

The X1 originally went on sale in Europe in 2010, and after a solid launch on its home continent, the little crossover was introduced in small-car-friendly Canada for 2012, only going on sale here in the US fresh off a minor facelift for 2013. To be clear, the X1 shares no design DNA with the even-smaller Countryman. Their engineers don't even use the same washroom – whereas the Mini is based on a front-drive chassis, the X1's architecture is a variant of the aforementioned rear-wheel-drive 1 Series, itself derived from the old E90 3 Series. Exactly none of this is bad news.

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